Souls' Collision | ✔

M A R E

~Chapter Twenty Four~

By the time the sun arose the two brothers had covered a lot of ground.

They'd traveled all night, sprinted through the forest, guided only by Red's insticts. Prowl quickly ran off as they neared -- after all, they weren't being subtle -- and the two wolves didn't chase after them.

All they did was run.

By the time the first rays of sun came upon them, Reva had had enough. He was burnt out, exhausted. His muscles couldn't compare to his brother's even on a normal day; now he was moving with almost manical determination, much too fast for a runt.

Reva used the little strength he could muster to run up to his brother and throw himself against him, finally stopping them both.

Red's intense eyes targeted him. His every cell was fatigued yet itching to move. It was obvious.

Reva straightened his tail, flicked his massive head. The message was clear: they couldn't keep going like this. Furthermore, the sun was coming out, meaning they would soon have to continue on human legs. On human stamina.

Their fur turned to smoke, invading the snow, stroking the trees.

Left as it dissipated were two men, one cool and dark like the landscape surrounding them; the other like a bonfire, standing proud -- eyes always looking for a fight.

"Do you know what you are doing, brother?"

Red's chest was heaving violently yet he still managed to puff it up. "Don't question me."

"You're going to faint if we keep this up -- we both are."

"I thought we'd been through this. I'm not leaving her."

Reva's eyes gained an edge, the kind telling he had an idea. "That wasn't what I was suggesting."

"Then what are you suggesting?"

"Listen. Do you hear that?"

In an instant the sounds around them heightened. Red focused through his erratic breathing and, after a second or two, heard the clopping of hooves. Horses. Two of them. Not only that, but two humans as well, conversing cheerily.

By the expression on his brother's face he could only assume that was what he had intended.

"There are human villages all around here. Of course there are humans traveling through. What of it?"

"It isn't the humans, but their means of travel. A horse's legs move faster than ours... Having one would get us there quicker."

"Where do you suggest we find a horse?"

Reva ducked down, then hurried off. He covered some ground before diving behind a large rock seemingly dropped in the middle of the woods. Red came up beside him, not appreciating the act.

Two pair of eyes peered up from behind the rock at the same time, zooming in on the two horses trudging through on a narrow path, each with their own blissfully ignorant woman in the saddle.

"We can take them," Reva whispered, eyeing the group greedily. "It would be so easy. I know you're not going to agree but--"

"Okay."

"O-Okay?" He nearly lost his footing. "Really? You're willing to do it?"

"If it'll get us to Liz faster, tell me the plan -- I assume there'll be no killing involved," he said with a pointed look.

"Yeah, yeah, just listen here. We have to be quick."

Twenty minutes later two mares were trotting through the forest, far off the trail. Their hooves easily broke through roots and ice as oppose to the light tap of wolf-paws.

Reva sat uncomfortably in the saddle, eyeing his horse's every move with alert suspicion. A few feet beside him was Red, brooding whilst his horse toggled the tough terrain.

"What is it?" Reva asked, successfully halting his brother's destructive thoughts. "Is she alive still?"

"Yes," he gritted out.

"Is she being tortured?"

"No... I don't think so."

"What then? You look ghastly."

Red glared at him, each line between his eyebrows a warning. The horse flattened its ears, bobbed its head at the notion of danger. But Red wasn't going to attack his brother. Not yet. "You were right," he said instead. Sighed. Looked to the tree-tops. "I should have taken it slow. I shouldn't have gotten carried away but I did, and now she may suffer because of it. I don't even know who she is, what she has to lose. Her family... I can't help but to think that she has a wonderful family. And I don't even know who they are."

Reva was silent for a while, letting the sound of the horses trotting fill the air, before carefully pulling on the reins. "Well, she has a sister."

Red's head shot up. "How do you know this?"

"Do you truly want to know?"

He didn't answer that. Instead he thought for a second or two, deliberating whether or not to trust his brother's word, until curiosity got the best of him. "She has a sister?"

"Three, actually. One lives in Australia with her husband, and the youngest one just took her first steps. That hit her hard, by the way."

"What did?"

"Moving away from her little sister." His nose crinkled. "She's sentimental like that."

"And her parents?"

"No idea."

Red couldn't accept that. He grabbed the reins and had his mare come to an abrupt halt. Without intending it to, the other horse stopped as well, almost tossing Reva off. Red narrowed his eyes. "How can you not know about her parents?"

"Because she doesn't either," Reva growled, glaring a hole at the back of his horse's head. "She's adopted at birth, all the siblings are."

"W-What?" He still didn't allow his horse to move as he processed what he'd just been told. "She's an orphan?"

"Not exactly--"

"Just like me."

Reva threw a discreet look his brother's way, stopped himself from saying what he'd been about to say; Liz wasn't really an orphan. She'd had an upbringing, a home, and losing your parents meant two wildly different things in their wildly different worlds. But his brother had a certain look, a certain calm about him when realizing the two had something in common, and so Reva for the first time in a long time didn't take pleasure in bursting that calm.

"Let's go," Red said fiercely, suddenly grabbing the reins and delivering an effective heel to the horse's side. The mare shot off. Reva grabbed ahold of his own reins seconds before his horse went galloping on after, not caring about the panicking rider in the saddle.

Far off, across the forest they heard Liz scream.

And that was the final, definitive reason that Red needed to know he was after blood.

And wouldn't settle for less.

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